Thrasher Magazine

The Bay Area Celebrates the Jacka’s Birthday in True Form
The past year has been rough times for the Bay Area, specifically for Oakland. With nationwide incidents of police brutality at an all-time high, tension between the public and local authorities has been on the rise every minute. In the midst of it all, the Bay Area's rap community just lost one of their strongest voices to a fatal and currently unsolved shooting. On the night of February 2nd, 2015 the Jacka, of legendary group Mob Figaz, was gunned down while kicking raps with friends in East Oakland.

Since his untimely death, many have come together to show their support for the family King Jack left behind. From special street wear collaborations with Cookies and Diamond Supply Co. to the recent two-night concert series in honor of Jacka's birthday the love shown has been unprecedented. Held August 12th in San Francisco and August 13th in Santa Cruz The Jack's tribute concerts were lit.
The Regency Ballroom is where Jacka performed one of his last shows as a surprise guest for the sold out 'Cookies Christmas Party' so it was only fitting that the SF tribute took place there this past Wednesday.  Rolling up to the infamous concert venue, thousands of fans were gathered in lines spanning the block while others bum-rushed the center entry way saying "fuck it" to a line and security. Shit was going off!  The unruliness of the crowd outside was a bit intimidating but once inside it was nothing but kush clouds and an undeniably positive energy of reflection for the Jacka’s life.

Images of the Jack and past music videos played on a huge projector screen while DJ Quest cut it up, announcing it was his first time performing since his friends passing. The roster was thick with classic Bay Area talent. All of a sudden artists like Joe Blow, Bo Strangles and Lee Majors took to the mic. As the night progressed, legends kept popping up. The stage was like a box of chocolate full of rappers, we never knew who we were gonna get. The show became one non-stop live dedication mixtape with artists such as Celski, Dru Down, Keak Da Sneak, San Quinn, Freeway and Paul Wall all throwing down classic hits and collaboration tracks they'd recorded with the Jacka. Special props to AP9 (Mob Figaz) who murdered the whole show both by his performance and by keeping the crowd super hyped- orchestrating mass hyphy dances with the damn near 80 motherfuckers on stage!  One of the most special things about the evening was that you could really feel just how close everyone on stage was to their lost friend. The energy was palpable and the artists were really performing which, less face it, is a rarity these days. The guys were truly putting on and showing out for their ace. The show ended on a high note with one of the Jacka’s most well-known classics, "Glamorous Life." There wasn't a hand that wasn't in the air, there wasn't blunt left unsmoked and there wasn't a single person in the audience that didn't leave with an even fonder memory of the artist they love so much.

PK, Jacka's manager, described King Jack as "the glue [that] brought together so many people" and Paul Wall reminisced to me that his friend  was a "brother figure, who would inspire you and motivate you to where you feel like you can conquer the world." Even in his absence that’s exactly what the Jacka did that night.

Happy birthday Jacka, you still blessing us. -Traci P